Scripture

Matthew 7:1-5

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

1 Kings 18:1-24

After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: "Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land." So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.

Now the famine was severe in Samaria, and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, his palace administrator. (Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord. While Jezebel was killing off the Lord's prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.) Ahab had said to Obadiah, "Go through the land to all the springs and valleys. Maybe we can find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive so we will not have to kill any of our animals." So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another.

As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, "Is it really you, my lord Elijah?"

"Yes," he replied. "Go tell your master, 'Elijah is here.'"

"What have I done wrong," asked Obadiah, "that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death? As surely as the Lord your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you. But now you tell me to go to my master and say, 'Elijah is here.' I don't know where the Spirit of the Lord may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn't find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the Lord since my youth. Haven't you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord? I hid a hundred of the Lord's prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water. And now you tell me to go to my master and say, 'Elijah is here.' He will kill me!"

Elijah said, "As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today."

So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, "Is that you, you troubler of Israel?"

"I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "But you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the Lord's commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table." So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing.

Then Elijah said to them, "I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let Baal's prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire-he is God."

Then all the people said, "What you say is good."

Let's Clear our Eyes to See Divinity

by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts

Read the message below. Video premieres today at 8 pm EDT, click here to watch on YouTube with live text chat

We're told that today, anxiety and depression is at epidemic proportions and our use of escapist narcotics is at an unprecedented level as well. Unfortunately, we are often caught up in the seat of our consciousness (our minds) in judgment, distraction and anxiety, which drives us to seek even more distracting and mindless practices. It's hard to sit alone with ourselves, but to make matters worse - when given over to fear and judgment we also tend to reject others (especially those who aren't similar to us) and even lash out at those closest to us with disdain, anger, defensiveness, and impatience.

It's true, we find that we always look for distraction: random thoughts, random phone apps and cascades of content. Reflect for yourself: how much of what you experience is subject to the whims of your external mind, the part of you that finds it hard to experience peace, stillness, and silence, as opposed to your higher or more inward, watchful mind? And how much of your experience is truly conscious, subject to your patient control and centered on peace, contentment, higher empowerment and enduring joy, instead of impatience, pain, or judgment?

I recently heard a talk from the famous yogi, Sadhguru, and he stated that our minds are constantly subject to the painful whims of inputs from the world and our past, that our minds can often be the "trash cans of the world." That is, trash cans that we find ourselves trapped within. He went on to say that if instead we work so that our minds start to serve us, serve our inner peace and bliss, then they and all the inputs become like compost and nourish us to enlightenment.

We've become too dependent on the outward world to shape our inner experiences, instead of centering on the love and joy available to us in every moment!

I hear a similar sentiment offered by what I consider to be the Divine Guru, Jesus the Christ ("Savior"), in our reading from Matthew 7 today. Like Krishna or other embodiments of Divinity in the world's scriptures, at the beginning of this reading Christ says that we must release judgment in order to walk truly free in this world in right relation with the Universe and Divinity. As he explores throughout his ministry, this is a type of walk that brings healing, love, and joy.

Although many interpreters of this scripture will point to the perceived nuance that you might be ok to judge others if you're personally fine with being judged in the same way, I'll point to some of Christ's other sayings to further clarify his emphasis on entirely giving up the seat of judgment: he says that to the extent that we forgive others God forgives us, that you who are without sin throw the first stone, and that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I'll note that the type of judgment we're asked to relinquish is quite different from rationality, discernment, and making healthy decisions!

Further, Christ says that we must release the plank in our own eye before we start focusing on the dust in others (like many of Christ's sayings, try interpreting that one literally!). Thus, we ought to let go of all the things that crowd and blind our own consciousness before we even think to judge the dust in another person's consciousness (their eye). For some reason, I doubt that in saying this God was tasking us to measure how big other people's issues are.

Also, this idea clearly points to how we all tend to have more hurtful practices than we're willing to see, and that there can be many things that distract us from a healthy, plank-free worldview! So that begs the question, what would a clear, true consciousness look like?

I love our community because it allows us to now refer to a common vein in many of the world's major scriptures, from the Vedas (Hinduism) to the Hebrew Bible. Like Christ, these say that a truly healthy consciousness is one centered on the inner-wellspring of peace and joy within. In a spiritual vernacular, this means acting with peaceful devotion and a deep gratitude for the Divine Personhood of God(dess), no matter the circumstances. "God" being the Higher Power referred to by many names, ideas and traditions even within the Bible: goodness, rationality, love, humaneness, and truth itself. Further, many of these traditions point to the great peace and empowerment found by striving to acknowledge that God is truly a Divine Person, inherent in all things but especially the aspects that make us good and humane.

This tells us that centering on this Peaceful One within us with loving devotion is a good way to find joy and make headway clearing away the debris in our consciousnesses, whatever that debris may be! What makes this easier to remember and enact is that as we remember to live this meditative idea, we find much more peace and less anxiousness within! Personally, in the moments I find my breath and remember this call to devotional living toward the One at the center of everyone, I find that I'm less subject to the whims of my anxious, external mind, its judgments and its hurtful practices.

I think that today's Hebrew scripture about the Prophet Elijah embodies this idea perfectly. In this story, the Israelites have turned away from embodying love and life, represented by their killing of the Lord's prophets and teachers, and the worshipping of the god Baal with religious rites of self-harm and lustful action (which is why we use the little "g").

In response, God sends a physical drought onto the land to represent the people's spiritual drought and to eventually provide the means for their future renewal of inner life. Or, in other words, the people have created a harsh environment for themselves! This is when God's prophet Elijah shows up - at a time of great physical and spiritual drought, which leads to famine and death throughout the Israelite nation and tribes.

However, at the start of our reading God's decided to bring rain back to the Israelites through Elijah. But appearing before the court, he's neither trusted nor welcome! Blaming God and Elijah for the drought, the King lashes out at the prophet.

Do you see the irony here? When presented with a means to heal and be saved at a time of deep hurt and pain, we tend to judge and lash out even toward the potential source of health! The same ideology of fear and selfishness that got us in the mess in the first place judges our only hope: a messenger of love and healing. This can repeatedly happen to us on our own spiritual journeys, discounting the small voice of true reason and peace for the loud voice of judgment and lustful distraction.

But thankfully, God and his prophets don't give up so easily, both in story and in our inner lives! As we see throughout the rest of this tale, Elijah courageously does the Divine work of helping to right Israel away from hurtful practices and bring nourishment back to the land, staving off death and pain.

We're asked to listen to the Elijah within, especially when we're the most prone to lash out and judge even the voice of innocence, love and plenty in our hearts. We're tasked with turning toward the peace within, escaping the trash can of our reactiveness and letting our minds start to work for us. And finally, we're called to turn away from our externally oriented mindsets of judgment, lust, wrath, and distraction, which only further hurt, famine, pain and fear, to find the Lord speaking rain and bringing fruition.

We need this type of fruit. Our world needs this type fruit. May it be so. Amen.

Blessings,

Rev. Cory